Today, many worldwide web pages (HTML documents) are available that offer a variety of textual and non-textual content types. On a traditional desktop or laptop computer with a large screen running a standard web browser, these content types are easily arranged and displayed for viewing. For example, web sites for searching realtor property listings often deliver a plurality of images for the viewer to quickly scan for a property of interest. When the user identifies a property of interest, they can then read the details associated with the image of that specific property and select that image for further details about the property.
At the same time, the field of communications, and more specifically wireless telecommunications, is currently undergoing a radical expansion. This technological expansion allows an electronic device, such as mobile personal digital assistant (PDA), cellular phone, pager, and other electronic devices to connect to the same information sources, such as a web server or database, as one could with the PC and a PC-based browser. Several small device client browsers are available which deliver content from the web to the handheld devices.
However, these small devices typically lack the screen space or navigation capabilities to display web content intended for display on a desktop or laptop computer. Thus, there are a number of techniques client browsers utilize to assist the user in navigating the web pages on the small screens. For example, client browsers may alter the layout of web content, change the positioning of images, or simply not display some web content.
Small device browsers often have difficultly in displaying animated, interactive, or dynamic content due to a slow connection speed, memory limitations, and/or processor limitations. When a small device browser loads a webpage containing movable objects or dynamic content, the browser typically ignores such content. As an example, most mobile browsers do not support Adobe Flash players, and as such, when Flash files are found on a webpage, the browser may display “flash not supported” in the area where the Flash file content was intended.
It would be desirable to provide mobile device browsers with the capability to display a visual representation of interactive animated content within a web page to thereby adapt the webpage for display on a device other than an originally intended device.